Judge Delays Bill Cosby Retrial Until Spring

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Bill Cosby arriving Tuesday at a pretrial hearing in his sexual assault case at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pa.CreditMatt Rourke/Associated Press

By Jon Hurdle

Aug. 22, 2017

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges will take place next March, five months later than previously planned, to allow his new defense team time to prepare for the case, a Pennsylvania judge ruled on Tuesday.

Judge Steven T. O’Neill of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas also said that he expected the jury to be selected from the local county rather than from the other side of Pennsylvania, where the jurors who sat for Mr. Cosby’s first trial were selected. That trial ended with a hung jury in June.

Mr. Cosby’s legal team for the first trial had sought a change of venue, arguing that pretrial publicity had possibly biased potential jurors from Montgomery County, an area just outside Philadelphia where Mr. Cosby owns a home. He is accused of assaulting a Temple University staff member there in 2004. Judge O’Neill did not allow a change of venue, but did allow the jurors to be selected from Allegheny County, about 300 miles away.

Mr. Cosby’s new legal team apparently did not share that concern about pretrial publicity. After closed-door discussions with lawyers from both sides, Judge O’Neill said: “I will not be receiving a new motion seeking a change of venue or venire.”

But the new team, led by Tom Mesereau — who successfully defended the singer Michael Jackson on child-abuse charges — did ask for more time to prepare its case. The judge agreed and set a trial date of “sometime between March 15 and April 1.”

Prosecutors had hoped that the judge would allow the case to proceed, as scheduled, in November.

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Tom Mesereau is leading the new legal team representing Bill Cosby.CreditMatt Rourke/Associated Press

“We are ready to proceed,” the Montgomery County district attorney, Kevin R. Steele, said after the hearing. “We are confident our case and the evidence will be ready when we get a trial date from the judge.”

For the retrial, Judge O’Neill expressed confidence that impartial jurors could be found in Montgomery County. “We have more than capably demonstrated that we can deal with all aspects of jury selection,” he said.

The judge also formally allowed the withdrawal of Mr. Cosby’s former lawyers, Brian J. McMonagle and Angela Agrusa, who had sought, without giving reasons, to leave the defense. The two lawyers hugged and shook hands with other lawyers and supporters from both sides before leaving the courtroom early in Tuesday’s hearing.

Mr. Cosby, 80, posed for photographs with his new lawyers after the hearing but said nothing to reporters. The new legal team also includes the lawyer Sam Silver of Philadelphia and Kathleen Bliss, a former federal prosecutor from Nevada.

Mr. Cosby faces three charges of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, who worked for Temple at the time and said Mr. Cosby drugged her beforehand. Mr. Cosby denies the charges and has said the encounter was consensual.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: Bill Cosby Retrial Delayed Until Spring. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe